October 14, 2009: Our second year at Taft is in full swing and the year already seems to be going by quickly. The girls continue to grow and develop so fast that it is astonishing. Julia is quickly approaching her first birthday and seems to do new things all the time. I think she is about to get about 5 new teeth any day now. Her gums look like they are going to explode. A few weeks ago she had her first ear infection and it came in the middle of the night during the weekend so it meant a 4:30 am drive to the ER for the two of us. She was in so much pain and would not stop crying. She loves her book Brown Bear right now. When she sees it she growls and can even "say" brown bear in a gruff voice, it is so funny. After their tub the girls like to play on our big bed and Julia does these funny tumbles and rolls all around. She has been cruising with more confidence lately and yesterday she took her first steps. She can only take one or two and will go between me and James. She is still definitely crawling all the time, not walking, but she did take steps. Julia gives us kisses which we adore. We'll say "can I have a kiss?" and she gives us a big open mouth kiss. Also about 10 days ago we moved Julia into the same room as Casey so the sisters are officially sharing a room. I was not very optimistic and expected sleepless nights as they transitioned but they have done really well. Julia goes to sleep at 7pm and Casey around 7:30pm so we just sneak in with Casey and Julia is so passed out by then that she does not hear anything. Casey still cries out in the middle of the night from time to time but it has not been an issue for Julia yet, she either sleeps thru it or is able to get back to sleep quickly. The mornings are the only tricky part when one wakes the other too early. But I am happy to have them in the same room and it has worked well.
Casey is getting to be a handful. She is exhibiting her independence more and more and is not as agreeable to just do what I ask her. She has bouts of whineyness and has had a few temper tantrums. She will sometimes scream and cry when she does not want to do something we ask her to. It is very difficult as a parent to deal with this attitude because you feel like you have done something wrong in your parenting to have caused this negative change, but in reality the kids are just learning to make their own choices and figuring out that balance. Patience is key! James and I have been looking at pre schools for Casey for next year. It is an out of body experience going to open houses and campus tours for her, I can't really believe it.
I don't have too many pix from this Fall but here are two from a day we went peach picking with our friends. We've been to several county fairs in the area and will head out to pick pumpkins soon. I'll try to put more pix and maybe a video up soon.